Ask the Engineer: Craig

Craig, a vice president and Technology Fellow at Goldman Sachs, discusses his career trajectory in technology and why he finds financial services an exciting place to be an engineer.

Q: What is your engineering background? I attended the University at Buffalo in New York, where I studied Electrical and Computer Engineering. My first full-time position was working at a small security consulting firm, where I gained exposure to many different roles in Information Technology, including system administration, software development and onsite consulting.

Q: What led you to a career at Goldman Sachs? I’ve always been close to the financial services space and felt that it presented a unique challenge, from both a security and engineering perspective, to meet the demands of the industry. Goldman Sachs offered this on a substantial scale in terms of the diversity of its business and the technical challenges associated with the sheer volume of engineering happening here.

Q: How would you describe your career so far, and what are you currently working on? I started my career in computer security, specializing in firewalls. As my career progressed, I became responsible for the engineering and implementing of many different kinds of security controls and technologies. I joined Goldman Sachs in 2013 after being offered an advisory role in the Technology Risk team. Currently, my responsibilities are focused on helping the firm’s Engineering teams identify and manage the risks associated with their initiatives. There are a number of projects where engineering teams are looking to leverage cloud services to achieve scale and time-to-market requirements. Our team is working closely on each of these efforts to ensure that proper controls are developed to manage the risk associated with the firm’s use of specific cloud services.

Q: In 2016, you were recognized as a Technology Fellow. Can you tell us what this distinction means to you? The Technology Fellow distinction is the recognition of an individual’s technical expertise in their domain, their influence over the engineering direction of the firm and the impact made in terms of executing on and delivering the firm’s technology goals. For me, the existence of this distinction demonstrates Goldman Sachs’ commitment to supporting its engineering talent, and provides a community that further fosters collaboration across technology disciplines.

Q: What advice do you have for engineers thinking about pursuing a career in financial services? Technology has and will continue to change the financial services industry. There are many different career paths available within financial services, and not all of them require a keen interest in finance. Rather, as a technologist you want to find an organization that is committed to advancing their business goals through the latest technologies. The engineering mindset is important, and taking the time to fully understand both the technology and the business drivers influencing your projects will lead to greater successes in your career.